A survey found that South Korea ranked fourth among the 38 OECD countries on the happiness score, which is a self-assessment of people’s quality of life. Finland is the happiest country for the sixth year in a row.
According to the World Happiness Report (WHR) published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness on the 20th, the average happiness score of Koreans was 5.951 out of 10. It is ranked 57th out of 137 countries. Among the full member countries of the OECD, Greece (5.931 points, 58th place), Colombia (5.630 points, 72nd place), and Turkey (4.614 points, 106th place) had lower happiness scores than Korea.
The WHR report is published based on data from the previous three years of the Gallup World Poll (GWP) annual survey on subject well-being conducted in various countries around the world. This year’s report used survey data from 2020 to 2022. In reports published every year since 2012, Korea maintains an average score of around 6 points and ranks between 40 and 60 out of 150 countries.
Finland ranked first in happiness with a score of 7.804. It was followed by Denmark (7.586 points) and Iceland (7.53 points), and the 2nd to 10th places were mainly occupied by Nordic countries. In Asia, Singapore ranked 25th (6.587 points), the highest. Japan ranked 47th (61.29 points), slightly higher than Korea. Thailand, China, and India ranked lower than Korea.
Of the 137 countries, the country with the worst happiness was Afghanistan (1.859 points). In addition to this, most of the low-ranking countries were underdeveloped countries. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, ranked 70th (5.661 points) in happiness, while Ukraine ranked far lower, at 92nd (5.071 points).
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.